While there is no one-size-fits all pricing, many digital marketers adhere to the one cent per follower (or $100 per 10K followers) rule, but only as a starting point for their calculation

This formula only makes sense if you actually know HOW MANY OF THOSE FOLLOWERS ARE REAL AND SEE THE AVERAGE POST! The issue is that Instagram follower count DOES NOT equal reach or impressions. Instead you need to look at the Instagram Insights from an Influencer’s account to understand how many people they actually reach. Negotiating based on follower count is ludicrous as that number is completely unreliable. Instead negotiate based on an influencer’s average TRUE reach on Instagram, which you will find by requesting the Instagram Insights.

If you need a simple guideline that is grounded in better logic here is an option: At Socialpeeks we know that a good reach rate on Instagram Insights is about 25-30% of followers. Which is why I would suggest paying 3 cents per true reached follower. For example:

If someone has 100,000 followers but is only reaching 10,000 people on average I would offer a rate of $300.

But, if someone has 100,000 followers and is reaching 40,000 people on average I would offer a rate of $1200.

Regardless of your budget the most important recommendation is to use Instagram Insights when negotiating - as this can even affect how we think of engagement rates. For example, if someone has 100,000 followers and gets 1000 likes and 500 comments per post...that engagement rate is even more impressive when you realize those likes and comments are coming from an audience of far less than 100,000 people!

Influencer Campaign reporting can be a mess, how can I collect all the Instagram information I need from Influencers?

When you are managing an Instagram influencer marketing campaign, the act of gathering all the campaign content from each influencer’s account along with their data can be an enormous challenge. Campaign reports are often the thing clients & executives most look forward to reviewing and future business could hinge on your campaign report.

You could be gathering dozens or even hundreds of pieces of Instagram content along with all the results associated with each piece. Typically marketers accomplish this monumental feat through an endless number of emails, calls, file transfers, spreadsheets and shared download folders. Basically influencers need to:

Download and share the campaign images and videos from their Instagram account

Send you screenshots from the Instagram Insights on their phone

Marketers have to take all this information and build a report. There has to be a better way!

You can use Socialpeeks to establish a private-secure connection with the Instagram account(s) of all the influencers you hire. When you send an influencer a Socialpeeks connection request, and they authenticate their Instagram account with you, Socialpeeks will automatically download all of the Campaign Post and Stories ALONG with all the Instagram Insights from this content.

Having all the Instagram Post & Stories automatically downloaded in one place, along with all the Instagram Insights data from each piece of content cuts their campaign reporting efforts by 60%!

How can I learn about an Influencer's Instagram audience?

It is not obvious where the followers of any Instagram influencer live. But, if you are conducting an influencer campaign and need to reach people in a specific market it is imperative that you know that a significant portion of that influencers followers live in that area. You may also want to target audiences that over-index in specific demographics like Age or Sex. BUT how do you know who makes up the influencer's audience?

The simple answer is you need to see the Instagram Insights from that influencer’s account! This will show you exactly where the followers register their home by Country, State, Province and even City. The Instagram Insights will show you the followers self identified age and sex.

Without this information you could be wasting money and time reaching an audience that will never care about your product OR are physically unable to buy it! Obviously if your campaign spans borders, sex or age than you don’t need to worry as everyone is a potential customer. But the reality is that most campaigns have at least some “audience focus” and without the Instagram Insights marketers are flying blind!

Socialpeeks is a tool that allows marketers to create a private-secure connection between themselves and the Instagram accounts of the influencers they hire.

This connection gives marketers access to the Instagram Insights from an influencer’s account.

AND automatically downloads all the campaign Post & Stories, along with the Instagram Insights form that content so you have everything you need for your campaign report.

How can I see what other brand collaborations an influencer has worked on?

Marketing regulations and best practices insist that Instagram influencers declare paid partnerships and collaborations. Even if the compensation is free products, services or experiences influencers must declare that these collaborations are sponsored. And these sponsorship declarations often take the form of keyword and #hashtags in their post (e.g. #sponsored, #ad).

So if you look through an influencers Instagram post and find those #hashtags you will be able to see their previous paid collaborations.

The Socialpeeks Chrome Extension makes it easy to identify these sponsored posts. Simply visit an Instagram account in your Chrome browser and click the Socialpeeks Chrome Extension. In addition to automatically calculating engagement rates you can move to the “Content” tab where you can see top performing content AND “previous sponsored collaborations”.

The Socialpeeks Chrome Extension has a filter containing those #hashtag and keywords that declare sponsored content. What’s more is you can use the PLUS button in the Chrome Extension to go further and further back in an influencer’s post timeline to see all of their sponsored content.

How do I know if an influencer even has Instagram Insights?

Instagram Insights is a native analytics tool that provides data on follower demographics and actions, as well as content performance. This information makes it easy to compare content, measure campaigns, and see how individual posts are performing. Instagram Insights includes information like:

Audience Locations

Audience Demographics

True reach and impressions on Post & Stories

As well as much more

Only influencers with Instagram Creator or Business accounts have Instagram Insights, but how can you tell if someone has one of these accounts? There are two ways:

From your computer, you can use the Socialpeeks Chrome Extension to identify what type of Instagram account someone has. Simply, go to any Instagram account in your chrome browser and click the Socialpeeks Chrome Extension. The little icon on the left will tell you what type of account they have. Fun Fact: Kim K has an Instagram Creator Account.

From your phone, it is a little tough. Sometimes a Business or Creator account will offer up a title under their name in light grey (for example: Blogger or Fitness Trainer)

Once you know that someone has an Instagram Business or Creator account you now know you can request their Instagram Insights.

How do I know if an Influencer has fake followers?

The cost of acquiring fraudulent followers isn’t expensive at all. Hootsuite has a great blog about fake Instagram followers. In the Hootsuite article they discuss how buying fake followers “can be quite cheap, with many services charging around $3 USD for every 100 followers.

The bottom line is that if you are willing to pay an influencer hundreds of dollars for a couple of Post and Stories, it makes sense for them to take a small percentage of that money to buy the Likes and Comments that will keep you happy and wanting to work with them again.

While there is no magic filter that tells exactly who is a bot on Instagram, here are the two best ways for marketers to tell if an influencer has fake followers (NOTE: the second point is the most important).

Engagement Rates: You can use a FREE tool like Socialpeeks Chrome Extension to quickly analyze the engagement rate of any Instagram Account. Warring: There are services out there that allow influencer to buy fake Likes and Comments so even with a tool like Socialpeeks so I would advise you to occasionally go into the post of potential influencers and review the comments. Are they in the language of the account owners (it is less likely a French account will be getting tons of comments in English)? Are a large portion of the comments gibberish or clearly fake or are they thoughtful/reasonable responses to the content?

Instagram Insights: The single best way to know if someone’s audience is real and engaged is by looking at the Instagram Insights from the Influencers Account. This will show you the TRUE reach and impressions of their content. Instagram knows when someone actually consumed a Post or Story and that is what the Instagram Insights tells us. Insist that the influencers you hire are willing to share their Instagram Insights with you before, during and after the champaign.

Socialpeeks is a tool that allows marketers to create a private-secure connection between themselves and the Instagram accounts of the influencers they hire.

This connection gives marketers access to the Instagram Insights from an influencer’s account.

AND automatically downloads all the campaign Post & Stories, along with the Instagram Insights form that content so you have everything you need for your campaign report.

Is it "ok" to ask an Influencer for their Instagram Insights?

Marketers and creators who are serious about Instagram influencer marketing know that Instagram Insights are the most critical information available.

Instagram Insights is a native analytics tool that provides data on follower demographics and actions, as well as content. This information makes it easy to compare content, measure campaigns, and see how individual posts are performing. Instagram Insights includes information like:

Audience Locations

Audience Demographics

True reach and impressions on Post and Stories

As well as much more

Facebook (owners of Instagram) have ensured that an Influencer’s Instagram Insights are only available to the owner/manager of that account. In fact this critical information is only available on the phone app! Which means if you, as a marketer, want to review an influencer’s Instagram Insights you have to ask.

I frequently hear markets sheepishly ask if it is “OK” to request this information from influencers, to which I say OF COURSE IT IS! This is not sensitive personal information, it is simply the true information about the account you are about to hire.

One of the most important numbers marketers need to know is an influencers TRUE reach on Instagram. Having 100,000 followers means nothing if only 1,000 people actually see your content on Instagram. And the only way to know this is to look at the Instagram Insights from a number of recent Post so you can get an average. This is also helpful as it sets a benchmark for their eventual campaign content, if they typically reach 25% of their followers you would expect that your campaign content should reach about 25% as well.

xfIf you are about to hire a creator AND they are unwilling to share their Instagram Insights, I would ask, what do they have to hide. Are they embarrassed by the TRUE reach or impression their content produces? If so, all the more reason that you need to know this.

Please stop, negotiating influencer contracts based on Follower Counts and instead: Insist that all creators share their Instagram Insights (A) before you sign a contract with them and (B) during and after the campaign.

And just because you might not be paying an influencer (e.g. free samples or event tickets) doesn’t make this any less important. Even if you aren’t paying large sums of money to an influencer you still deserve to see the Instagram Insights from the account you are collaborating with. This needs to be an industry norm!

Socialpeeks is a tool that allows marketers to create a private-secure connection between themselves and the Instagram accounts of the influencers they hire.

This connection gives marketers access to the Instagram Insights from an influencer’s account.

AND automatically downloads all the campaign Post & Stories, along with the Instagram Insights form that content so you have everything you need for your campaign report.

Should I be looking at an Influencer's Instagram Insights?

Instagram Insights is a native analytics tool that provides data on follower demographics and actions, as well as content. This information makes it easy to compare content, measure campaigns, and see how individual posts are performing. Instagram Insights includes information like:

Audience Locations

Audience Demographics

True reach and impressions on Post and Stories

As well as much more

Only influencers with Instagram Creator or Business accounts have Instagram Insights. Because of this, the Socialpeeks Campaign Services team often refuse to work with any influencer who has a Public account and is unwilling to change their Instagram account to Creator or Business.